Bungling Surgeon Ben Carson Left Sponge In Patient’s Brain!

Judging by White House wannabe Ben Carson’s track record as a neurosurgeon, his presidential campaign should be declared dead on arrival!

In a bombshell investigation into his medical career, The National ENQUIRER has exclusively learned the now retired doc allegedly butchered one patient’s brain — and EVEN left a sponge in another’s skull!

According to at least six malpractice lawsuits against Carson obtained by The ENQUIRER, the Republican candidate allegedly rushed patients into surgery, and brandished a scalpel like a meat cleaver!

“He’s totally untrustworthy!” one former patient, Karly Bailey, told The ENQUIRER. The Florida woman claimed Carson spent “maybe 14 minutes” with her and her parents before performing a delicate brain tumor operation that ruined her life at age 9.

“My parents told him they weren’t authorizing him to remove the whole tumor because of the risk,” said Karly, now 27.

“But he did what he goddamned pleased! He tried to remove all of the tumor, and injured my nerves and brain stem.

“I was paralyzed on my right side. I’ve never fully recovered. I have chronic fatigue, and my eyes dance around. It’s like having permanent vertigo. My face droops and people are really cruel.”

Karly’s family slapped Carson — then director of pediatric neurosurgery at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital — with a lawsuit.

But in a 2011 affidavit, Carson shockingly called Karly’s post-op problems “unavoidable.”

The conservative candidate, 64, built his medical reputation on being the first surgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head.

But The ENQUIRER uncovered complaints about the married father of three dating back to 1986 — a year before his success with the twins.

One alleged bungled operation involved a patient identified as John P. Sparco. In court papers, he claimed Carson and three other surgeons operated on him to remove what they claimed was a deadly tumor.

The tiny tumor turned out to be benign and non–life-threatening. But during the procedure, he suffered “irreversible” injuries, including deafness in one ear, dizziness and slurred speech.

His lawyer said: “To strangers he appears to be drunk.”

Carson was slammed for another alleged botched surgery in 1999. After he operated on a girl from Michigan, X-rays taken later at another hospital found the patient’s severe post-op pain was the result of a shunt that was put in “upside down.”

In another horrifying case, a 69-year-old Florida woman claimed her eardrums were perforated during a 2008 operation for facial pain performed by Carson’s team.

When the pain recurred, Carson told the patient, Darlene King, that she might have a tumor. But surgery revealed the lump was actually “a sponge he had left in (her) brain”!

Yet another Florida woman, Merryl Reynolds, accused Carson of negligence during 2010 spinal surgery on her 15-year-old son, Austin. He “is now paralyzed from the waist down,” she claimed.

Maryland patient Mary Perna, 58, consulted Carson in 1994 for side effects of multiple sclerosis. According to Mary, he said the cure was brain surgery.

When the surgery did nothing to help, she claimed Carson came into her hospital room “in a highly agitated state,” and admitted he hadn’t reviewed pre-op MRIs. He allegedly said that if he had, “We never would have done the (surgery).”

In March 2013, Carson announced he was retiring as a surgeon, saying: “I’d much rather quit when I’m at the top of my game.”